HYDERABAD: In what could bring some relief to agitating parents, the Telangana government has now moved the
Hyderabad High Court (HC) seeking vacation of its earlier interim order, which allowed private schools to hike their annual fee. While the petition was filed last month —on March 19 — it was released in the public domain by school education department sources only on Thursday.
On January 22, the HC allowed private schools to raise their fees, but instructed them to ensure that the hiked part of the fee is deposited in a separate bank account and not withdrawn till the matter is finally adjudicated. This interim order followed a petition filed by the Independent Schools Management Association (
ISMA), Hyderabad that challenged the Telangana state’s memo directing schools to maintain statusquo on the fee structure, for the 2018-19 academic year.
Countering the ISMA, the state submitted that issuance of the memo is “well within the powers of the government to regulate and notify the fee structure in private, unaided schools and aided schools with unaided sections” and that it is “only an interim arrangement till a decision is taken on the Prof T Tirupathi
Rao Committee in the matter”.
At present this report that was met with stiff opposition from parents, is being examined. The Rao committee had recommended an annual 10% hike in school fee.
Lashing out at the ISMA, the recent petition, submitted by
G Kishan, commissioner and director of school education department informed the court that though it is a registered society, it is in no position to file a single writ petition representing 29 schools under its aegis. The commissioner submitted that the claims made by ISMA in it’s affidavit that they cannot be treated as regular schools since they are affiliated to
CBSE and
ICSE and providing several other facilities such as indoor and outdoor amenities, is not tenable. He clarified that since schools obtain NOCs to open, from the state government, they have to abide by the conditions laid down by the government.
“Therefore, the contention that since they have obtained affiliation from CBSE & ICSE board and the expenditure incurred by them is more than normal school imparting the said syllabus and thus they can charge fee as they like is not correct. The schools provide various indoor and outdoor amenities viz tennis court, etc. only to attract the students,” submitted the commissioner, further adding that private educational institutions are entitled to cater to the demands of the parents of the students without resorting to profiteering or collection of capitation fees.
He further informed the court that school managements claim that they have been fixing the fees commensurate with the capital and revenue expenditure and are conducting regular audits each financial year is absolutely false. The writ petition filed by the Telangana government is likely to be heard on April 23, 2018.
